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Voters turn against Labour in local elections

02/05/2008

Labour has slipped into third place and been handed setbacks across England and Wales as the final results from Thursday's local elections are handed in.

Analysis of ballots cast on Thursday shows Gordon Brown's party has 24 per cent of the vote share, compared to 44 per cent for the Tories and 25 per cent for the Lib Dems.

The Tories won control of 12 councils and gone well past their target post of 200 councillors, gaining 256 seats.

Labour meanwhile lost nine councils, including Nuneaton and Bedworth, which it had held for the last 34 years.

According to the BBC, which carried out the vote-share research, the results could be Labour's worst for four decades. Analysts had said anything over losses of 200 seats would be bad, but the governing party at national level eventually finished down 331 councillors by the end of the night.

Among the Tories' other big wins were Maidstone, Harlow, Bury and Southampton, where the Lib-Lab agreement fell away despite two Labour MPs representing the city.

But David Cameron's party lost control of Coventry, where Labour had launched their campaign, to no overall control (NOC).

The Lib Dems had a mixed time of it, gaining Kingston-upon-Hull from NOC, but losing West Lindsey to the Conservatives. They won Sheffield and, thanks to an independent switch, clung on to Liverpool by just one seat. Overall they were 34 seats up.

Initial forebodings that Gordon Brown was in for a rough night in his first electoral test as prime minister were fully realised, with Labour's support waning in its northern heartlands.

In Wales Labour lost control of Merthyr Tydfil, Blaenau Gwent, Flintshire and Caerphilly. The Conservatives advanced strongly in Monmouthshire while Labour lost 14 seats in Cardiff.

The London mayoral result is expected later today.